A couple of notes before I get to my point here…
1) Don’t worry, this blog isn’t intentionally going video even though I’ve done more video posts recently than normal. That’s just the way the cards got dealt.
2) I am not an informercial kind of guy. Any of you that have ever read me or follow my Twitter feed know that. But I will warn you up front that this video is all about my company.

But with that said, when I first saw this video at our internal creative summit on Tuesday, I was blown away. First of all, the office you see here is our San Francisco office. And all the people you see are my colleagues. The reason I felt such strong feelings about this video is I think it does a great job demonstrating what we do. I also love the fact that WE DID IT! Well, not me but some of the folks on our creative team. So before I bore you to tears by waxing too poetic, I want to share it.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sij93-iK9vg]

Let me know what you think in the comments. Maybe I’m too close to this.

Guest post by Jay Baer, social media and content strategist at Convince & Convert, and co-author of The NOW Revolution: 7 Shifts to Make Your Business Faster, Smarter, and More Social.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLmmmah5XL8]

Sure, location-based services are great for customer engagement and loyalty rewards. But they are also potential sources of great content.

When we say “content creation” what we usually think of is the company in question creating informational materials themselves, and putting that information on a website, blog, and/or YouTube. But when you look at the tips in Foursquare (or the customer-created microcontent in any LBL platform) you’ll see an array of potential content handholds.

At Yogi’s in Bloomington, Indiana the Foursquare tips talk about karaoke night, the restaurant’s signature “Big Salads”, and even a beer education class. All of these + other tips are potential blog posts, email newsletter topics, podcasts and other content pieces that Yogi’s can use to inform and entertain customers and prospects.

Through location-based services, customers are telling companies what they think is most interesting and noteworthy. Tap into that stream and use it as raw materials for your next round of content creation.

A couple of weeks ago, I was lucky enough to speak at a conference called Bricks + Mobile up in Chicago. The focus of the conference was the state of mobile technology, how companies are tapping into the power of the untethered device and where all of this goodness is headed.

Sunday night, I was flying up to Boston from Austin on US Airways. Not my favorite airline by a longshot but they are reasonably priced and my last few experiences with them have been decent. Anyway, they had wifi on my leg from Charlotte, NC (one of their major hubs) up to Boston. Because it was only an hour and a half, I decided not to pay for the wifi. However, GoGoInflight is running a special right now where they are giving away free Twitter access during April.

As we got closer to Boston I started wondering how close to on time my midnight arrival would be. Given the fact that my Twitter friends are usually up all hours of the night and always very helpful, I thought I’d ask if they might be able to look up my flight status. Of course, I was right and I immediately got several helpful responses. But it was one person in particular — an employee at a competing airline — who was kind enough to look for me that really impressed me.

So why was I so enamored with this occurrence? Because with nothing to gain, this person went above and beyond to give me information I needed, when I needed it. If more companies took this approach, there is no doubt in my mind that businesses would win over a lot of new customers. At the end of the day, being helpful is always appreciated, especially when there is no apparent ulterior motive.

Have you ever had this happen to you? If so, share your story in the comments.